Nearly half of US adults own smartphones: survey

Mar 01, 2012

A woman passes by posters of the iPhone 4 and the BlackBerry Torch at an AT&T store in Washington, DC in 2010. More American adults now own smartphones than basic mobile phones, according to a survey released on Thursday.

More American adults now own smartphones than basic mobile phones, according to a survey released on Thursday.

The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project survey found that smartphone penetration has increased significantly among nearly every major demographic group in the United States.

According to the survey, nearly half -- or 46 percent -- of Americans aged 18 and older owned a smartphone as of February while 41 percent owned a basic mobile phone and 12 percent did not own a mobile device.

A survey conducted in May last year found that 35 percent of American adults owned a smartphone while 48 percent owned a basic mobile phone.

Twenty percent of mobile owners said they own an Android device, up from 15 percent in May 2011, 19 percent said they own an iPhone, up from 10 percent in May 2011 and six percent said they own a Blackberry, down from 10 percent in May 2011.

Two percent said they own a Windows phone, unchanged from May 2011, and one percent said they own a Palm device, also unchanged since May 2011.

Pew found that smartphone ownership has increased significantly among men and women, younger and middle-aged adults, urban and rural residents and the wealthy and the less well-off.

Seniors trailed the general population with just 13 percent of those aged 65 and older owning a smartphone.

The survey of 2,253 adults was conducted between January 20 and February 19 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.7 percentage points.

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